Catching a Killer: The Mystery of Sable Island. 2002. Written and directed by Larry Bambrick, Discovery Channel. Produced by Discovery Channel's Exploration Production Inc.

Note: This program is still being aired, frequently. TV’s “Shark Week” has provided a niche for Catching a Killer, and perhaps Canadian Content requirements also account for many of the repeat showings. A Discovery Channel TV schedule blurb says that ”Like every good mystery, this story starts with a body. In this case, hundreds of mutilated bodies washed up on the sandy shores of Sable Island, a tiny spit of land in the North Atlantic. A mysterious killer is lurking in the steely waters off the east coast of Canada. The corpses belong to grey seals, which gather by the thousands on the shores of Sable Island twice a year. The seals bear bizarre spiral wounds which have led to one theory that one of the most elusive of all sharks is responsible—the Greenland shark. With the help of scientists from the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory and the Apex Predator Program in the United States, Catching A Killer: The Mystery Of Sable Island tries to solve the puzzle of the dead seals once and for all. But it won't be easy.”

Indeed. They didn’t solve the puzzle. It was a Keystone Cops kind of operation, and the program ends up being about “process” rather than “results”. This is reflected in a testy comment left in the Green Horse guest book in August 2006: “I thought the special that was shown on Discovery HD about the local seals being attacked by possible Greenland sharks was a complete waste of my time! There was no conclusion to the hypothesis which left me irritated. I can't believe there was a documentary on this subject with no conclusion—absolutely ridiculous. You owe me one hour of my time. Have fun on your vacation at Sable Island. I was so irritated that I had to write you this message. Good day.”

In 2003, Catching a Killer: The Mystery of Sable Island was nominated for a Gemini award in the category of “Best Writing in a Documentary Program”, perhaps in recognition of the skill in creating the illusion of a “story” where there was nothing much worth reporting.